Setting and Collecting Fees

A recent decision by a New York court, rejecting a law firm’s breach of contract claim to recover $2.3 million in legal fees from a client highlights both the importance of a detailed written representation agreement and yet another reason to consider adopting flat fees. According to the New York Law Journal, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres […]

Last month over at Attorney at Work, practice management consultant Peggy Gruenke shared her Mini-Checklist for Trust Account Management. Gruenke’s list is an exhaustive compilation of the do’s and don’ts and best practices for trust account management and therein lies the problem. Because in a digital age when most firms accept electronic payments and credit […]

Figuring out how much to charge isn’t just a conundrum for lawyers, it’s common to most small businesses. For example, how many times have you as a lawyer, asked yourself or a colleague the same questions posed in this New York Times story, Businesses Go Creative on Pricing, Applying Technology. Many business owners struggle with […]

No, not joking. Just a few days after my two part series on the viability of a $99/hour firm, I came across this $75/hour business model, the Justice Cafe in Fulton County Georgia, offering a la carte family law service to walk in clients. Lawyers staffing the Justice Cafe will work on contract and collect […]

Following yesterday’s post exploring the viability of the $99/hour lawyer as a business model, discussion (if you can call an exchange of 140 character blurbs and bursts real discussion) ensued on Twitter. I wanted to use this post to summarize my view of the argument and also clarify the context of my post. Defending People […]

Call it a new kind of legal limbo as law firms take a turn on the conga line to see just how low they can go. Only this form of limbo isn’t a game, but serious business. Large firms are quoting suicide rates to keep business reports Lawyerist while solos and nonlawyer networks are exploring […]

As Matt Homann points out, price transparency is coming soon already here in both the medical and legal profession. Of course, it goes without saying that most lawyers dislike the idea of putting price on their website either for fear that competitors will undercut them or concern that clients will be deterred by a high […]

Talk about value-pricing makes me crabby. It’s not that I’m a fan of the billable hour or that I fear that flat fees (one type of alternative pricing) put lawyers at risk of under-recovery. Rather, it’s just that many of the alternative/value-pricing gurus are so darn opaque about how to implement alternative pricing that the […]

As a solo or small firm lawyer, you’ve probably heard the term “involuntary pro bono.” That’s what happens when you sign up to take a case, collect a retainer, exceed the retainer and the client stops paying the bill on the eve of trial when it’s too late to pull out. Well, turns out that […]

In my last post, I discussed different types of freebies that lawyers offer as incentives to encourage existing clients to send or refer more work. But lawyers — and quasi-legal providers like Legal Zoom — are also using free to generate new clients. Many lawyers – from solos to behemoth firms – are giving away […]